Media Center Edition 2006

[Dan L]

Anyone tried out Windows Vista Beta 2 on here?

I'm on the beta test group, and finally got round to installing Vista on my system (at work)...and I didn't realise that Media Center was integrated into the OS. Apparently there will be different flavours of Vista so I'm not sure if all versions will include the MC app.

Functionality wise it looks pretty much the same, but the menu anims and general layout is quite different.

It's a shame I don't have a tuner card installed, as I can't get to see the guide stuff or anything like that. Thought about installing it at home but am reluctant to bust my current MCE box for it

Anyone else tried it with a fully-functional media PC?

I would love to try it. I tried to register as a beta tester but heard nothing from them.

From what I've seen the interface is improved.

Dave

[Dan L]

My bloody installation seems to have broken after trying a dual-install with XP, but once I have it up and running I will try to get a few screen grabs.

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by danluton

It's a shame I don't have a tuner card installed, as I can't get to see the guide stuff or anything like that.

Even if you put in a TV tuner card the BDA driver architecture is totally broken for the current beta of Vista so no TV works. Hopefully Beta 2 due in December will have this fixed.

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by danluton

My bloody installation seems to have broken after trying a dual-install with XP, but once I have it up and running I will try to get a few screen grabs.

It's OK taking the screen grabs but showing them to others will be a breach of the NDA you signed when you enrolled in the Beta programme.

[Dan L]

Ahhh, its all buggered anyway...it's flakier than a Cadburys.

[dejongj]

Ah I'm jealous I'm no longer part of an organisation that I get all that stuff...Unless I resort to usenet....Anyways, the main thing that I am concerned about is DRM....Rumours are that Vista will provide quite a tight lock-down on things like upscaling, copying your own paid for CD's etc..etc...Any sight of that yet?

[Gillykid]

I have tried it on and off for the last week and was acutally quite disappointed.

Although the graphics were spruced up a bit i thought the whole user interface was lacking compared to 2005. It didn't help that the loading times were looooonnnnnnngggggg too.

Overall, needs a lot of work in my opinon.

[HSC]

found a preview here:

http://www.vistalounge.com/2005/10/n...er-preview.htm

[Monty Burns]

Originally Posted by HSC

found a preview here:

http://www.vistalounge.com/2005/10/n...er-preview.htm

Heh - suprised he aint been spanked coz of the NDA.


I remember using Longhorn on a laptop with only half a gig (I too was an MSDN Universal sub). It took aaaaaaaggeeeesssss to boot as it appeared to need just over half a gig to load the O/S. Disk paging 4tw!

I suspect the gig minimum is gonna be the new standard for just a stable O/S like 512 is now?